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In a Prison Riot at the Prison of Elders, Cayde-6 meets his final death at the hands of Uldren of the Reef and the Scorn, Fallen corrupted by dark ether. The Vanguard condemn the action but are not in a place to retaliate, but your Guardian swears vengeance and scours the Tangled Shore before finding new mysteries in the Dreaming City of the Awoken.
Forsaken contains examples of:
- Art Shift: There are two cutscenes narrated by Petra Venj surrounding the Dreaming City. The first uses stylized images of the Dreaming City with a few minor 2-D effects to explain its existence. The second is after the defeat of Riven in Last Wish outlying the events of the raid as though it is a folk tale, but stylized like an ink painting and given Limited Animation like a Motion Comic. The style of the second cutscene reappears throughout later game expansions, usually in the same manner as recapping events and providing a ending sequence on the completion of a raid.
- The Chains of Commanding: While Ikora wants to burn the Reef to get Uldren, Zavala expresses that they are not an invading force and they have to let it go.
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Continuity Lockout: This story is the first to take numerous plotlines introduced in prior expansions and develop them further. The Destiny 1 Base Campaign, House of Wolves and The Taken King in particular. If you didn't play Destiny 1, you wouldn't know who Mara Sov or Uldren is. Even further, what Ahamkaras are was buried in the lore from the beginning. - Everything in Space Is a Galaxy: The description for this expansion's launch trailer refers to Uldren and his Scorn Barons as "the most-wanted criminals in the galaxy", even though they're only really considered fugitives within the Sol System.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Multiple levels of this. Uldren is the primary story villain and getting revenge for Cayde's death is the goal. But Cayde has been manipulated by a strange force, which is revealed to be Riven, a type of shapeshifting dragon that wields very powerful magic that is not entirely understood and is the Final Boss of the Last Wish raid. Riven in turn was Taken with that and the curse on the Dreaming City was handled by Dul Incaru, a Hive wizard who is the Final Boss of The Shattered Throne dungeon. Lastly, this was all masterminded by Savathun, the Hive God of Deceit and sister to Oryx.
- Innocuously Important Episode: This expansion at first feels fairly low key compared to previous DLC, as the story is revenge focused rather than having to confront a potentially world-ending threat. But over time this proves to be exceptionally important for the greater narrative.
- Uldren exposes the existence of the Dreaming City and through a long series of overlapping plots sets the stage for Queen Mara to return after being apparently killed at the beginning of The Taken King three years prior.
- Uldren is killed at the end, but a year later a ghost finds him and resurrects him as a lightbearer, with no knowledge of his previous life. A year after that this new lightbearer returns to the narrative with the name Crow and wonders why everyone hates his face.
- The Scorn are a variation of the Fallen, a wholly new faction that are corpses reanimated by Dark Ether. Come The Witch Queen and The Vow of the Disciple raid, this turns out to be the preferred army of the newly revealed Greater-Scope Villain in The Witness.
- Savathun is peripherally revealed to be behind all the events of this expansion, and would remain in the shadows for another three years until The Witch Queen unveils the extents of her manipulations. Another year and a half after that in "Season of the Witch" would have her be the source of the mythical 15th Wish (a "Wish Wall" in the Last Wish raid which contains pictorial codes for different bonuses). This in turn lead to "Season of the Wish" and The Final Shape expansion.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Two of them. The Last Wish is the Raid for the season where you defeat Riven, an Ahamkara who was the one who corrupted Uldren and coerced him into the events of the story. The second is The Shattered Throne, actually designated a Dungeon where you explore Mara Sov's imitation Ascendant Realm to locate Dul Incaru, a Hive Wizard who is actually a proxy for Savathun (Oryx sister), who was the one to set Riven on that path.
